Belvo Boys In The League Of Ireland 2014

By Jamie Moore

Famous for its exports, with Wes Hoolahan (Norwich), Richie Foran (Inverness), David Forde (Millwall), Stephen Kelly (Reading), Stephen Henderson (West Ham) and Matt Doherty (Wolves), to name just a few, following in the footsteps of Curtis Fleming and Mark Kennedy to make their mark in the UK having played for Belvedere, the club has always produced players who have done well in the League of Ireland.

By our calculations, there are 36 former Belvedere players who learned to play 'The Belvo Way' playing in this seasons SSE Airtricity League and seven working as managers or coaches covering a total of 13 clubs, that’s 65% of the league. Many more of our former players are playing the U19 League.

We couldn’t even count the number of medals they have between them from their time at Belvedere and their time in the League of Ireland.

Ahead of new season which kicks off on Friday night, we take a look at the former boys in blue currently playing in the league.

ATHLONE TOWN:

Sean Byrne

Barry Clancy

Kealan Dillon

Neil Harney

Mark Hughes

Craig Sexton

BOHEMIANS:

Keith Buckley

Daniel Byrne

Dinny Corcoran

Jake Hyland

Roberto Lopes

Philip McCabe

Anto Murphy

Lee Murphy

Derek Pender

Darragh Reynor

Stephen Traynor

BRAY WANDERERS:

Jamie McGlynn

DUNDALK:

Darren Meenan

Nathan Murphy

Keith Ward

LIMERICK FC:

Mick Leahy

SHAMROCK ROVERS:

David O’Connor

Chris Lyons

Emeka Onwubiko

DROGHEDA UNITED:

Alan McNally

SHELBOURNE:

William McDonagh

SLIGO ROVERS:

Ross Gaynor

ST.PATRICKS ATHLETIC:

Chris Forrester

Mark Quigley

UCD:

Michael Barker

Gary Burke

Hugh Douglas

James Kavanagh

Tom O’Halloran

WEXFORD YOUTHS:

Sean Skelly

THE MANAGERS

Four ex Belvo players are current LOI managers, with three more taking their place in the dugout as coaches.

Stephen Kenny(Dundalk manager)

Johnny McDonnell (Shelbourne manager)

Trevor Croly (Shamrock Rovers manager)

Tony Cousins (Longford Town manager)

Martin Russell (St.Patricks Athletic coach)

Graham O’Hanlon (Bohemians coach)

Jamie Moore (Shamrock Rovers 1st Division coach)

We will be keeping an eye on the progress of all of our former players in the league this season. Features and interviews with different players will be on belvederefc.com throughout the season with regular updates on the Belvedere FC facebook page and on Twitter @BelvedereFCDub.

Chris Forrester, Mark Quigley, David O’Connor and Ross Gaynor will be playing in the Champions League and Europa League qualifiers for their clubs, so keep an eye out for them.